Tulare County Biographies
LEVI LUKENS GILL
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler
This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm
Born in Pickaway county, Ohio, June 23, 1837, Levi Lukens Gill was raised on a
farm and educated in common schools there. He was married February 4, 1858, to
Eliza A. Harriman, born in Pickaway county, May 18, 1842, daughter of Aaron A.
and Eliza (Mitten) Harriman, the former born in Vermont and the latter in Ohio.
At the time of the Civil war they moved to Ringgold county, Iowa, and there he
farmed until 1873, when he embarked with his family on an emigrant train for
California. Settling in Yokohl valley, he bought, homesteaded and pre-empted
land and engaged in the stock business on a large scale, taking his sons into
partnership. Here he was active until his death, September 4, 1909.
Levi L. Gill and his wife had sixteen children, ten of whom are living, viz.:
Charles O., born in Ohio ; Will and Fred, twins, born in Iowa ; Louis, also born
in Iowa ; Julia, wife of Marion Anderson; Pruda M., widow of John C. Hodges ;
Frank and Lee, on the ranch; Martha, who married Harry Sickles ; and Ora, at
home. In politics a Republican, he assisted in organizing schools there. He
bought the White ranch upon which the first orange trees were planted in Tulare
county, in Frazier valley. He retired a short time previous to his death. Mr.
Gill built a home in Porterville, at Oak and Gravilla streets, where his widow
now resides.
History of Tulare and Kings Counties, California with Biographical Sketches -
Los Angeles, Calif., Historic Record Company, 1913, pp. 686